“But when the truth rose, like the sun, from the earth for those who sate in darkness and shadow of falsehood, then righteousness stooped down from heaven and, for the first time, appear to men in its reality and perfection. We were justified, first by being set free from bonds and condemnation , in that He who had done no evil pleaded for us by dying on the cross. By this He paid the penalty for the sins we had audaciously committed; then, because of that death, we were made friends of God and righteous. By His death the Savior not only released us and reconciled us to the Father, but also ‘gave us power to become children of God’ (John 1:12), in that He both united our nature to Himself through the flesh which He assumed, and also united each one of us to His own flesh by the power of the Mysteries. In this way, the, He makes His own righteousness and life to rise, like the sun, in our souls. Thus it becomes possible for men, by means of the sacred Mysteries, both to know true righteousness and themselves practice it” (Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, 53-54; emphasis mine).

“…This life of forgiveness, which is nothing other than the life of Christ within us, is our inheritance in the faith. The life of blame, recrimination, bitterness, anger, revenge and the like are not the life of Christ, but simply the raging of our own egos, the false self which we exalt over our true life which is “hid with Christ in God.”

The rightness of a cause or the correctness of our judgment do not justify nor change the nature of our ragings. For none of us can stand before God and be justified – except as we give ourselves to the life of Christ, who is our only righteousness.

The question of forgiveness is not a moral issue. We do not forgive because it is the “correct” thing to do. We forgive because it is the true nature of the life in Christ….In the same manner, the refusal to forgive, the continuation of blame, recrimination, bitterness, etc., are not moral failings. They are existential crises – drawing us away from the life of Christ and Paradise, and ever deeper into an abyss of non-being…”

“Justification in the New Testament does not mean a transaction – a kind of deal; and repentance defies mechanical definition. It is a continual enactment of freedom, a movement forward, deriving from renewed choice and leading to restoration. The aim of the Christian is not even justification but a re-entry by sinner and saint alike into communion in which God and man meet once again and personal experience of divine life becomes possible. Both prodigal and saint are “repenting sinners.”

Repentance is not to be confused with mere remorse, with a self-regarding feeling of being sorry for a wrong done. It is not a state but a stage, a beginning. Rather, it is an invitation to new life, an opening up of new horizons, the gaining of a new vision. Christianity testifies that the past can be undone. It knows the mystery of obliterating or rather renewing memory, of forgiveness and regenera­tion, eschewing the fixed division between the “good” and the “wicked,” the pious and the rebellious, the believers and the unbelievers. Indeed, “the last” can be “the first,” the sin­ner can reach out to holiness. Passions are conquered by stronger passions; love is overcome by more abundant love. One repents not because one is virtuous, but because human nature can change, because what is impossible for man is possible for God. The motive for repentance is at all times humility, unself-sufficiency – not a means of justification for oneself, or of realizing some abstract idea of goodness, or of receiving a reward in some future life. Just as the strength of God is revealed in the extreme vulnerability of His Son on the Cross, so also the greatest strength of man is to embrace his weakness: “for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I render glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12.9). To be flawed is the illogical, perhaps supernatural characteristic of humanity in which one en­counters God.”

“In Western theology we often see a distinction being made between justification and sanctification. And one feels that we are dealing here with two separate stages which are clearly distinguished from each other. Justification is considered the first stage, the starting point, after which follows the second stage, sanctification. I maintain that in Orthodox theology the matter is placed on a different basis. What is stressed in not the distinction between justification and sanctification, but the dynamic character of justification. It is this very dynamism of justification which constitutes sanctification. Thus, man can become an infinite being with immense potentialities opening before him. Through baptism he puts on Christ; that is to say, he participate in the justification which Christ himself created, while finding the way open for him to raise himself ‘unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph 4:23). Justification is a given fact, but at the same time it is a reality towards which man continuously advances. It is, in the final analysis, the process towards the unending end of perfection” (69, Constantine B. Scouteris; “Church and Justification” found in Ecclesial Being: Contributions to Theological Dialogue).

” ‘Just say no’ is an insufficient principle. The strongest man or woman in the world is not nearly strong enough to triumph over his or her sin simply by saying no to it. What we need is the strength-giving grace occasioned by our saying yes to something else, by our saying yes, and yes, and yes—ceaselessly—to Someone else. It is not our finally turning away from sin that frees us from sin’s recurrence; rather it is our turning toward Christ–and the mystery of our continuing to turn into Him–that puts sin behind us” (The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain, Scott Cairns, 67).

Matins, Canticle Nine
“Through Thy Crucifixion Thou doest open Paradise again and deliver me from the eternal death of disobedience. With rejoicing I partake of life, and magnify Thee as my God, O Thou who lovest mankind.

O Lord, Thy lifecreating Cross has turned the instrument of the curse into a seal of blessing. Beholding Thee upon it, we who before were dead are brought back to life, and singing Thy praises we magnify Thee as our Master” (Lenten Triodion Supplement, 113).